Question
Question: How do living things use ATP?...
How do living things use ATP?
Solution
In all living species on earth, Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the main energy carrier. In the form of ATP, microorganisms absorb and store energy metabolism from food and light sources.
Complete answer:
When energy is needed by the cell, ATP may be used to store energy for future reactions or be removed to pay for reactions. The energy derived from the breakdown of food is processed by animals as ATP. Similarly, plants absorb and store in ATP molecules the energy they obtain from light during photosynthesis.
ATP is broken down by hydrolysis when the cell needs energy. The high energy bond is broken and it eliminates a phosphoryl group. For driving different cellular processes, the energy produced from this process is used. As it participates in biological reactions, ATP is continuously produced and broken down and it is vital to the health and development of all life. Without it, from one place to another, cells could not transfer energy, making it difficult for organisms to expand and reproduce.
A living cell does not store free energy in large quantities. An increase in heat in the cell would result in unnecessary free energy, which would result in excessive thermal motion that could damage the cell and then kill it. Instead, a cell must be able to manage the energy in a way that allows the cell to safely store energy and release it as required for use only. Living cells do this by using the adenosine triphosphate compound (ATP). ATP is also referred to as the cell's "energy currency," and this flexible compound can be used as a currency to meet any cell's energy needs. It operates similarly to a battery that is rechargeable.
Note:
Ribose, present in RNA, is a five-carbon sugar and AMP is one of the nucleotides in RNA. The addition of a second phosphate group to this central molecule results in adenosine diphosphate (ADP) formation; adenosine triphosphate is formed by the addition of a third phosphate group (ATP). Energy is necessary for the addition of a phosphate group to a molecule. When they are arranged in sequence, as they are in ADP and ATP, phosphate groups are negatively charged and thus repel each other. This repulsion leaves the molecules ADP and ATP fundamentally unstable. Energy is liberated by the release of one or two phosphate groups from ATP, a process called dephosphorylation.